Bronze Radio Return peforms Saturday at the Cupola Music Festival in the fields of the Mayo Farm in Stowe. / Allister Ann

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Free Press Staff Writer

David Byrne & St. Vincent perform Saturday as part of the Shelburne Museum's Concerts on the Green series. / Andreas Laszlo Konrath

Solid Sound

Friday through Sunday, this one isn’t in Vermont — but the Solid Sound Festival is not far over the border at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) in North Adams, Mass. — and it does have a few ties to the Green Mountain State. The festival is curated by Chicago rockers Wilco, who are playing Friday and Saturday, and is presented by the South Burlington entertainment giant Higher Ground. The big day of music Saturday features a pair of musicians with Vermont ties: Northeast Kingdom resident Neko Case and Brattleboro native Sam Amidon. The day’s impressive lineup also includes Low, Yo La Tengo, Foxygen, a reunion of ‘80s alternative-rockers The Dream Syndicate, Sean Rowe, Lucius and underappreciated singer-songwriter Mark Mulcahy. Yo La Tengo also plays Friday, while Sunday’s lineup includes Medeski Martin & Wood, Marc Ribot & David Hidalgo, Os Mutantes and Nels Cline of Wilco performing with fellow guitar whiz Julian Lage. Saturday single-day tickets are sold out, but three-day passes and tickets for Friday and Sunday are still available. $65-$149. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com or www.solidsoundfestival.com.

Get out your sunglasses and open your ears — Vermont’s outdoor music season has arrived. It really kicked off June 11 when Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros played at Shelburne Museum, but that turned out to be a rain fest, and it won’t rain on any more outdoor concerts this summer, right? Well, even if it does, the music should still sound good. Read on if you want to know where all the cool kids will be hanging out this summer …

• Today through Sunday, the second Wanderlust Vermont Festival brings music, yoga and inspirational speakers to Stratton Mountain in Bondville. The lineup on the music side includes Femi Kuti & the Positive Force, Quixotic, Caravan Palace and Sarah Neufeld. $15-$575. www.wanderlustfestival.com.

• Friday through Sunday, the third-annual summer-solstice music festival known as Ziontific takes place in Stockbridge with music coming from Roots of Creation, Jeff Bujak, The Lynguistic Civilians and The Aztext, among many others. $30-$90. www.ziontificproductions.com.

• 4:30 p.m. Saturday, the Cupola Music Festival takes root in the fields of the Mayo Farm in Stowe. The Hartford, Conn., folk-pop band Bronze Radio Return, with TallGrass GetDown, The Shady Trees and Entendre, make the music happen. $20-$30. www.facebook.com/cupolamusicfestival.

• 8 p.m. Saturday, two creative rockers come together at the Shelburne Museum when David Byrne & St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) perform as part of the Concerts on the Green series presented by Higher Ground. $49 in advance, $55 day of show. 652-0777, www.highergroundmusic.com.

• June 27-29, the 2013 version of the Rockinghill Music Festival at Rockingham Hill Farm in southern Vermont includes music from Dopapod and Jimkata on June 27; Spiritual Rez, The Brew and the Adam Ezra Group on June 28; and the Ryan Montbleau Band, Bow Thayer & Perfect Trainwreck, Kung Fu, the Alan Evans Trio and The Heavy Pets on June 29. $40-$85. www.brattleborotix.com.

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• June 28-29, what do snowboarders do when there’s no snow? Some of them put on a concert. The third-annual Frendly Gathering Music Festival (that’s right, Frendly, as in “There is no I in frends”) is hosted at Timber Ridge in Windham by snowboarders including Jack and Luke Mitrani and Danny Davis. Naturally there will be the closest thing to snowboarding the summer provides — a skateboard ramp — but there will also be music thanks to Beats Antique, Keller Williams and Paper Diamond plus a slew of acts with Vermont ties: Rubblebucket, Conspirator, Toubab Krewe, Assembly of Dust and Twiddle. $65-$75. www.frendlygathering.com.

• July 3-6, the pristine village of Grafton is the site — not surprisingly considering its name — of the Grafton Music Festival, which includes performances by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (July 3), Samirah Evans & Her Handsome Devils (July 5) and the Starline Rhythm Boys and the Compaq Big Band and vocalist Rebecca Holtz (July 6). $15 per day, $25 for a weekend pass, free for children under 12. www.graftonmusicfestival.com.

• July 7-13, the weeklong Middlebury Festival-on-the-Green features multiple acts each day, including, July 7, Lake Street Dive; July 8, Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo; July 9, Cassie & Maggie MacDonald; July 10, The Holmes Brothers; July 11, Kobo Town (signed to the Charlotte record label Cumbancha); July 12, The Clayfoot Strutters; and July 13, the Vermont Jazz Ensemble. Free. 462-3555, www.festivalonthegreen.org.

• July 12-14, the latest incarnation of SolarFest — which celebrates music and renewable energy — features music from the likes of Jesse Dee, Kina Zore and Soule Monde (July 12); Max Creek, The Skatalites and Melodeego (July 13); and Jatoba, Sparkplug and the newly reformed Seth Yacovone Band, all performing at Forget-Me-Not Farm in Tinmouth. $15-$39. 235-1513, www.solarfest.org.

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• July 19-21, the Champlain Valley Festival (organizers have dropped the word “Folk”) is back for its 30th anniversary after a one-year hiatus, and lands at a new site, the Rock Point School in Burlington. Acts announced so far include the Vermont-based Celtic and contra-dance band Frost & Fire and in-state folk legend Pete Sutherland. Ticket information to be announced. 1-877-850-0206, www.cvfest.org.

• July 26-28, the second-annual festival known as The Precipice, presented by the folks who run Radio Bean, moves to a new location this year, from The Intervale to the spacious grounds of Burlington College. The musical lineup showcases a ton of local bands plus a few regional acts, including Superhuman Happiness, Barika, Kat Wright & the Indomitable Soul Band, Ryan Power, Rough Francis, Michael Chorney & Hollar General, Steady Betty, Swale, Paper Castles, Maryse Smith, Vedora, Wave of the Future and a whole bunch more. $10-$45. www.facebook.com/ThePrecipiceVT.

• 12:30 p.m. Aug. 10, the folk-flavored Valley Stage Music Festival returns to Huntington with the Boston-based string band Joy Kills Sorrow, plus The Stray Birds, The Dupont Brothers Band and The Modern Grass Quintet. $25-$30 in advance, $35 day of show. 434-4563, www.valleystage.net.

• Aug. 16-18, central Vermont roots-rocker Bow Thayer and his band Perfect Trainwreck present their fifth-annual Tweed River Music Festival in Stockbridge, with music from the hosts as well as Rusty Belle, Lowell Thompson, Session Americana, Waylon Speed and a slew of other acts. $40-$140. www.tweedrivermusicfestival.com.

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• Aug. 16-18, the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival has become known as much if not more for its big concerts as for its celebration of all things aquatic. The only headliner announced so far is the veteran rock ‘n’ roll band The Black Crowes, who will be joined at Waterfront Park in Burlington by The London Souls at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 17. $43 in advance, $53.50 day of show. The festival also presents free mostly-local music that will include The Beerworth Sisters, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Keeghan Nolan, Monoprix, Barbacoa, Lisa Marie Fischer and Gregory Douglass. 482-3313, www.lcmfestival.com.